Instead of the Build engine used in Blood, Blood 2 designers opted this time to use the enhanced version of Monolith's in-house LithTech engine. Your protagonist, Caleb, is back to fight the CABAL, an evil cult that worships the Dark God Tchernobog.

BLood 2 is essentially bigger and better Blood. There are more weapons, enemies, and levels than in the previous game. The level design, one of the highlights of Blood, is even better in this game: in the first episode alone, you will travel from a museum to a huge science facility, to dark city alleys, and finally to a futuristic flying machine. Caleb's funny and witty one-liners are back, and the soundtrack is even better than in the original game. As in the first game, Blood 2 offers a lot secret passages and other pleasant surprises. You can also choose not to control Caleb but some other protagonist who is among "the Chosen." Each of the Chosen has a different weapon specialty and comes with their own set of taunts. But you will see the mini-movies and hints during the game only if you play as Caleb. The graphics are also much better and clearer drawn than Blood. Instead of blurry, dull palette, you see vivid environments brought to life in SVGA, with plenty of detail.

When all is said and done, though, the game itself doesn't feel as fun as Blood. Perhaps it is because a lot of so-campy-it's-funny elements have been replaced with a more ominous plot and more threatening monsters. But Blood 2 still remains very entertaining and highly replayable, especially with fun multiplayer levels and a full map/level editor. Best of all, Monolith has released the source code and other nifty tools for the game into the public domain, so if you want to try making your own FPS, check out the official site.

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User reviews

Average user rating from: 2 user(s)

I never played Blood but did enjoy Blood 2.
It was a fun game and while the AI was really dumb and the level design wasn't particularly good, it still proved to be fun with a fast gameplay and a lot of action.
It wasn't the most beautiful game of its time but was still pretty to look at.
Overall a cool game which might have been better if some improvements had been done to the AI and the story.

Fun title, but nowhere near as fun as Duke

I never played Blood but did enjoy Blood 2.
It was a fun game and while the AI was really dumb and the level design wasn't particularly good, it still proved to be fun with a fast gameplay and a lot of action.
It wasn't the most beautiful game of its time but was still pretty to look at.
Overall a cool game which might have been better if some improvements had been done to the AI and the story.